Commentary on John 20,10-29

1. Mary Magdalene had brought the news to His disciples, Peter and
John, that the Lord was taken away from the sepulchre; and they, when they came
thither, found only the linen clothes wherewith the body had been shrouded; and
what else could they believe but what she had told them, and what she had
herself also believed? "Then the disciples went away again unto their own"
(home); that is to say, where they were dwelling, and from which they had run
to the sepulchre. "But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping." For while
the men returned, the weaker sex was fastened to the place by a stronger
affection. And the eyes, which had sought the Lord and had not found Him, had
now nothing else to do but weep, deeper in their sorrow that He had been taken
away from the sepulchre than that He had been slam on the tree; seeing that in
the case even of such a Master, when His living presence was withdrawn from
their eyes, His remembrance also had ceased to remain. Such grief, therefore,
now kept the woman at the sepulchre. "And as she wept, she stooped down, and
looked into the sepulchre." Why she did so I know not. For she was not ignorant
that He whom she sought was no longer there, since she had herself also carried
word to the disciples that He had been taken from thence; while they, too, had
come to the sepulchre, and had sought the Lord's body, not merely by looking,
but also by entering, and had not found it. What then does it mean, that, as
she wept, she stooped down, and looked again into the sepulchre? Was it that
her grief was So excessive that she hardly thought she could believe either
their eyes or her own? Or was it rather by some divine impulse that her mind
led her to look within? For look she did, "and saw two angels in white,
sitting, the one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus
had lain." Why is it that one was sitting at the head, and the other at the
feet? Was it, since those who in Greek are called angeloi are in Latin nuntii [in English,
news-bearers], that in this way they signified that the gospel of Christ was to
be preached from head to foot, from the beginning even to the end? "They say to
her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away
my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him." The angels forbade her
tears: for by such a position what else did they announce, but that which in
some way or other was a future joy? For they put the question, "Why weepest
thou?" as if they had said, Weep not. But she, supposing they had put the
question from ignorance, unfolded the cause of her tears. "Because," she said,
"they have taken away my Lord:" calling her Lord's inanimate body her Lord,
meaning a part for the whole; just as all of us acknowledge that Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God, our Lord, who of course is at once both the Word and soul
and flesh, was nevertheless crucified and buried, while it was only His flesh
that was laid in the sepulchre. "And I know not," she added, "where they have
laid Him." This was the greater cause of sorrow, because she knew not where to
go to mitigate her grief. But the hour had now come when the joy, in some
measure announced by the angels, who forbade her tears, was to succeed the
weeping.

2. Lastly, "when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw
Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman,
why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing Him to be the gardener,
saith unto Him, Sir, If thou hast borne Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid
Him, and I will take Him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself,
and saith unto Him, Rabboni, which is to say,
Master." Let no one speak ill of the woman because she called the gardener, Sir
(domine), and Jesus, Master. For there she was asking, here she was
recognizing; there she was showing respect to a person of whom she was asking a
favor, here she was recalling the Teacher of whom she was learning to discern
things human and divine. She called one lord (sir), whose handmaid she was not,
in order by him to get at the Lord to whom she belonged. In one sense,
therefore, she used the word Lord when she said, "They have taken away my Lord;
and in another, when she said, Sir (lord), if thou hast borne Him hence." For
the prophet also called those lords who were mere men, but in a different sense
from Him of whom it is written, "The Lord is His name." But how was it that
this woman, who had already turned herself back to see Jesus, when she supposed
Him to be the gardener, and was actually talking with Him, is said to have
again turned herself, in order to say unto Him "Rabboni," but just because,
when she then turned herself in body, she supposed Him to be what He was not,
while now, when turned in heart, site recognized Him to be what He was.

3. "Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to
my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father,
and your Father; to my God, and your God." There are points in these words
which we must examine with brevity indeed, but with somewhat more than ordinary
attention. For Jesus was giving a lesson in faith to the woman, who had
recognized Him as her Master, and called Him so in her reply; and this gardener
was sowing in her heart, as in His own garden, the grain of mustard seed. What
then is meant by "Touch me not"? And just as if the reason of such a
prohibition would be sought, He added, "for I am not yet ascended to my
Father." What does this mean? If, while standing on earth, He is not to be
touched, how could He be touched by men when sitting in heaven? For certainly,
before He ascended, He presented Himself to the touch of the disciples, when He
said, as testified by the evangelist Luke, "Handle me, and see; for a spirit
hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have;" or when He said to Thomas the
disciple, "Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and put forth thy
hand, and thrust it into my side." And who could be so absurd as to affirm that
He was willing indeed to be touched by the disciples before He ascended to the
Father, but refused it in the case of women till after His ascension? But no
one, even had any the will, was to be allowed to run into such folly. For we
read that women also, after His resurrection and before His ascension to the
Father, touched Jesus, among whom was Mary Magdalene herself; for it is related
by Matthew that Jesus met them, and said, "All hail. And they approached, and
held Him by the feet, and worshipped Him." This was passed over by John, but
declared as the truth by Matthew. It remains, therefore, that some sacred
mystery must lie concealed in these words; and whether we discover it or
utterly fail to do so, yet we ought to be in no doubt as to its actual
existence. Accordingly, either the words, "Touch me not, for I am not yet
ascended to my Father," had this meaning, that by this woman the Church of the
Gentiles was symbolized, which did not believe on Christ till He had actually
ascended to the Father, or that in this way Christ wished Himself to be
believed on; in other words, to be touched spiritually, that He and the Father
are one. For He has in a manner ascended to the Father, to the inward
perception of him who has made such progress in the knowledge of Christ that he
acknowledges Him as equal with the Father: in any other way He is not rightly
touched, that is to say, in any other way He is not rightly believed on. But
Mary might have still so believed as to account Him unequal with the Father,
and this certainly is forbidden her by the words, "Touch me not;" that is,
Believe not thus on me according to thy present notions; let not your thoughts
stretch outwards to what I have been made in thy behalf, without passing beyond
to that whereby thou hast thyself been made. For how could it be otherwise than
carnally that she still believed on Him whom she was weeping over as a man?
"For I am not yet ascended," He says, "to my Father:" there shalt thou touch
me, when thou believest me to be God, in no wise unequal with the Father. "But
go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your
Father." He saith not, Our Father: in one sense, therefore, is He mine, in
another sense, yours; by nature mine, by grace yours. "And my God, and your
God." Nor did He say here, Our God: here, therefore, also is He in one sense
mine, in another sense yours: my God; under whom I also am as man; your God,
between whom and you I am mediator.

4. "Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples, I have seen the
Lord, and He hath spoken these things unto me. Then the same day at evening,
being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples
were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus, and stood in the midst, and
saith unto them, Peace be unto you. And when He had so said, He showed unto
them His hands and His side." For nails had pierced His hands, a spear had laid
open His side: and there the marks of the wounds are preserved for healing the
hearts of the doubting. But the shutting of doors presented no obstacle to the
matter of His body, wherein Godhead resided. He indeed could enter without
their being opened, by whose birth the virginity of His mother remained
inviolate, "Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Then said He
unto them again, Peace be unto you." Reiteration is confirmation; for He
Himself gives by the prophet a promised peace upon peace. "As the Father hath
sent me," He adds, "even so send I you." We know the Son to be equal to the
Father; but here we recognize the words of the Mediator. For He exhibits
Himself as occupying a middle position when He says, He me, and I you. "And
when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said unto them, Receive ye the
Holy Ghost." By breathing on them He signified that the Holy Spirit was the
Spirit, not of the Father alone, but likewise His own. "Whose so-ever sins," He
continues, "ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever ye retain,
they are retained." The Church's love, which is shed abroad in our hearts by
the Holy Spirit, discharges the sins of all who are partakers with itself, but
retains the sins of those who have no participation therein. Therefore it is,
that after saying "Receive ye the Holy Ghost," He straightway added this
regarding the remission and retention of sins.

5. "But Thomas, one of the twelve, who is called Didymus, was not
with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have
seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in His hands the print
of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand
into His side, I will not believe. And after eight days, again His disciples
were within, and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and
stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith He to Thomas, Reach
hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and put it
into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. Thomas answered and said
unto Him, My Lord and my God." He saw and touched the man, and acknowledged the
God whom he neither saw nor touched; but by the means of what he saw and
touched, he now put far away from him every doubt, and believed the other.
"Jesus saith unto him, Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed." He saith
not, Thou hast touched me, but, "Thou hast seen me," because sight is a kind of
general sense. For sight is also habitually named in connection with the other
four senses: as when we say, Listen, and see how well it sounds; smell it, and
see how well it smells; taste it, and see how well it savors; touch it, and see
how hot it is. Everywhere has the word, See, made itself heard, although sight,
properly speaking, is allowed to belong only to the eyes. Hence here also the
Lord Himself says, "Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands:" and what
else does He mean but, Touch and see? And yet he had no eyes in his finger.
Whether therefore it was by looking, or also by touching, "Because thou hast
seen me," He says, "thou hast believed." Although it may be affirmed that the
disciple dared not so to touch, when He offered Himself for the purpose; for it
is not written, And Thomas touched Him. But whether it was by gazing only, or
also by touching that he saw and believed, what follows rather proclaims and
commends the faith of the Gentiles: "Blessed are they that have not seen, and
yet have believed." He made use of words in the past tense, as One who, in His
predestinating purpose, knew what was future, as if it had already taken place.
But the present discourse must be kept from the charge of prolixity: the Lord
will give us the opportunity to discourse at another time on the topics that
remain.

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